Croatia vs. Serbia - When winter comes they're both equaly devine

Hi, guys!

First of all, sorry for not writing for a whole week! I've been sick and recovering from surgery, so I wasn't feeling like doing anything other than lying in bed and a little bit of reminiscing while watching old photos. I came across some pictures of this winter and decided to share my snowy experience with you!

My boyfriend is from Belgrade in Serbia. In order to spend winter holidays together, we decided to meet halfway, in Zagreb. The plan was to stay in Zagreb for a few days after which we would go to Belgrade to visit his family and spend the New year with them. Aaand after that, 4 magical days in a wooden cabin on a snowy mountain called Divcibare, which is located a few hours from Belgrade. At least that was the plan we made a couple months before. As we were getting closer to this date, we were more and more aware the winter this year is quite warm, the temperatures were rather high for December so our hopes of making a snowman together started melting with every sunny day that came.

BUT! First things first! Let me tell you a little bit about our Zagreb experience.
We stayed in Zagreb 3 days at the end of December, and, I must say, we had a beautiful time. We rented a small apartment on Airbnb, which was close to the city center, quite cozy and well equipped. The Advent in Zagreb was stunning! No wonder it was proclaimed the best European destination to visit during Christmas time, for the 3rd time in a row!

The Christmas feeling was literally everywhere you turn around! The city covered in lights, the odor of roasted sausages, boiled wine and cinnamon in the air filled the body with a warm sentiment and concealed the lack of snow. After the sausages and wine, we decided we had to try the specialty called germknedle, which actually derives from Austria and Bavaria (germknödel). It's a sweet dessert filled with jam and spilled with melted butter, vanilla and poppy seeds on top (you can also try the one filled and spilled with Nutella as my boyfriend did - but mine was better ;)) The yeast dough dumpling is boiled on the steam and served hot. It was deeeelicious!!! It was definitely worth it to wait in line for 15 minutes. TIP: do not go after you just had a meal, we were so full after a few bites! But, we couldn't stop eating, so we decided we're just gonna burst :)

After 3 beautiful voracious days in the capital of Croatia, we said goodbye to Zagreb and headed to Belgrade where we carried on with continuous devouring of all kinds of Serbian specialties (FYI, there are lots of them) and spend some time with my boyfriend's family.

All of the above pictures are taken in Zagreb, Croatia

Now, let me tell you about our trip to the mountain. We decided to have a trip to the mountain of Divcibare months ago. We wanted to enjoy a little bit of a snow experience (well, I did, since I come from Split where it snows very, very rarely). As I mentioned above, we started understanding that's not gonna happen a few weeks before the trip. Neither the warm weather nor the weather prognosis gave us much hope of having white holidays. I couldn't help feeling a little bit disappointed as we were driving in the bus to arrive at our lovely, but non-snowy destination. But, we ended up being quite blessed. As soon as we left our baggage and stepped foot out of the cabin, it started snowing. It was a nice surprise, but we assumed that by the time we get to the center and finish with lunch, it would stop falling. But, it didn't! Snow continued to fall all day and all night, so we got to have those perfect couple of days we didn't expect having.

I must give credit to the amazing destination we chose for our holiday, where we definitely plan to return next year! Divcibare is a small town and mountain resort situated just 115 km from Belgrade. Its highland at the altitude of 980 meters above the sea level is surrounded by several peaks and saddles which are covered with snow up to four months a year. For those who like skiing, there's a ski resort with affordable ski passes.
As for us, we skipped skiing this year. We decided to spend our time walking through the many footpaths, getting from viewpoint to viewpoint, exploring the vivid nature of Divcibare.

We followed the cute little pawprints in the snow (there were so many of them) hoping we would come across a bunny or fox or whatever animal to take a picture of it, but I guess we were too clumsy and noisy to sneak up on them. We kept getting lost in the woods, investigating, having snowball fights, pretending to be Gandalf and part of the Fellowship of the Ring... We came across the local kids that were sledding on a hill, so we joined them. We were out for hours until our toes started freezing, and we decided it was time to get back to the cabin, where we would make dinner and snuggle up under the blanket and watch the LOTR marathon, as we do every year (a little bit psychos, we know).

We were especially proud of our cute little snowman, with a big emphasis on WERE:

Because, sadly, when we got home from town, our baby was looking a little bit... horrifying...

That's all folks!
If you aren't sure where to spend your next holidays (or this year's), we highly recommend this vivid little mountain! We're sure you won't be disappointed!

Love,
FotograPixx